Winning hearts and minds

Wow. And I thought we had problems winning friends in the Middle East. Bush has even bungled one our traditionally best relationships.

People in Britain view the United States as a vulgar, crime-ridden society obsessed with money and led by an incompetent president whose Iraq policy is failing, according to a newspaper poll.

A few highlights, errr, lowlights:

77 percent of respondents disagreed with the statement that the US is "a beacon of hope for the world".

12 percent of Britons trust them to act wisely on the global stage. This is half the number who had faith in the Vietnam-scarred White House of 1975.

83 percent of those questioned said that the United States doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks. (Surprised it's not higher. Who actually thinks Bush cares?)

70 percent of Britons like Americans a lot or a little. (Phew, there's hope for the future.)

1% consider Bush a "great leader" against 77 percent who deemed him a "pretty poor" or "terrible" leader.

1 per cent of those who took a view said President George W Bush hypocritically championed democracy as a cover for the pursuit of American self-interests.

In answer to other questions, a majority of the Britons questions described Americans as uncaring, divided by class, awash in violent crime, vulgar, preoccupied with money, ignorant of the outside world, racially divided, uncultured and in the most overwhelming result (90 percent of respondents) dominated by big business.

Now if they can only take a serious look at Blair, not to mention their own violent crime, rigid class divisions, corporate weasels (BP, Shell, etc) and rampant racism. We can only hope that in a few years, both of our countries are able to get back on track.

Winning hearts and minds

Wow. And I thought we had problems winning friends in the Middle East. Bush has even bungled one our traditionally best relationships.

People in Britain view the United States as a vulgar, crime-ridden society obsessed with money and led by an incompetent president whose Iraq policy is failing, according to a newspaper poll.

A few highlights, errr, lowlights:

77 percent of respondents disagreed with the statement that the US is "a beacon of hope for the world".

12 percent of Britons trust them to act wisely on the global stage. This is half the number who had faith in the Vietnam-scarred White House of 1975.

83 percent of those questioned said that the United States doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks. (Surprised it's not higher. Who actually thinks Bush cares?)

70 percent of Britons like Americans a lot or a little. (Phew, there's hope for the future.)

1% consider Bush a "great leader" against 77 percent who deemed him a "pretty poor" or "terrible" leader.

1 per cent of those who took a view said President George W Bush hypocritically championed democracy as a cover for the pursuit of American self-interests.

In answer to other questions, a majority of the Britons questions described Americans as uncaring, divided by class, awash in violent crime, vulgar, preoccupied with money, ignorant of the outside world, racially divided, uncultured and in the most overwhelming result (90 percent of respondents) dominated by big business.

Now if they can only take a serious look at Blair, not to mention their own violent crime, rigid class divisions, corporate weasels (BP, Shell, etc) and rampant racism. We can only hope that in a few years, both of our countries are able to get back on track.

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